The Evening Blues - 8-12-19



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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Johnny Jenkins

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Macon, Georgia blues guitarist and harmonica player Johnny Jenkins. Enjoy!

Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers - Pinetop

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

-- Soren Kierkegaard


News and Opinion

Leaked Draft of Trump Executive Order to 'Censor the Internet' Denounced as Dangerous, Unconstitutional Edict

Civil liberties groups are warning of a major threat to online freedoms and First Amendment rights if a leaked draft of a Trump administration edict—dubbed by critics as a "Censor the Internet" executive order that would give powerful federal agencies far-reaching powers to pick and choose which kind of Internet material is and is not acceptable—is allowed to go into effect.

According to CNN, which obtained a copy of the draft, the new rule "calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms. Although still in its early stages and subject to change, the Trump administration's draft order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies."

While Politico was the first to report how the draft was being circulated by the White House, CNN notes that if put into effect, "the order would reflect a significant escalation by President Trump in his frequent attacks against social media companies over an alleged but unproven systemic bias against conservatives by technology platforms. And it could lead to a significant reinterpretation of a law that, its authors have insisted, was meant to give tech companies broad freedom to handle content as they see fit."


As detailed in an action alert put out by Fight for the Future over the weekend:

[The] leaked documents show that the Trump administration is drafting an executive order that, if upheld by the courts, could essentially end free speech on the Internet. The draft order would put the FTC and the FCC, headed by its notoriously corrupt chairman Ajit Pai, in charge of monitoring and policing online speech on social media platforms, online forums, and more.

It would give these bureaucratic government agencies unprecedented control over how Internet platforms moderate speech by allowing them to revoke the essential protections Congress laid out in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). CDA 230 is the basic law that makes it possible for online platforms to let users post our own content, and to make basic decisions about what types of content they as private entities want to host. Every meme, every social media post, every blog and user-created video on the Internet has been made possible by this crucial free speech protection.

In practice, this executive order would mean that whichever political party is in power could dictate what speech is allowed on the Internet. If the government doesn't like the way a private company is moderating content, they can shut their entire website down.

...

While the Trump administration has tried to argue the new order is a tool to keep web platforms from censoring online speech, Fight for the Future warns "this plan would create terrifying new censorship powers for the government to do just that."

Trump's intel shake-up reveals lingering tensions

Why Trump’s 'maximum pressure' foreign policy yields minimum results

Donald Trump is heading into the 2020 elections with no clear-cut foreign policy successes, some dramatic failures and a string of looming crises around the world that could undermine his bid for re-election. For that reason, many expect the president to try to reverse the trend with dramatic interventions around the globe with uncertain outcomes – which will make the next 16 months even more volatile than his presidency so far.

Trump has pulled out of nuclear agreements with Iran and Russia but the better deals he predicted seem more remote than ever, and in their absence nuclear weapons proliferation looks likely to accelerate. An effort to oust Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela in April was a fiasco, and subsequent efforts to strangle the economy have so far showed no sign of achieving their political objective. This week, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, warned that the measures are likely to significantly exacerbate conditions for millions of ordinary Venezuelan.

Trump’s proudest diplomatic achievement so far, becoming the first US president to meet a North Korean leader, is looking increasingly hollow, as Kim Jong-un steadily builds up his nuclear arsenal and resumes missile testing.

Similarly, Trump’s most significant military win, completing the eradication of the Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq, has been tarnished by a Pentagon inspector general report this week saying that Isis had “solidified its insurgent capabilities in Iraq and was resurging in Syria”. In Afghanistan, the administration claims to be close to an agreement with the Taliban, clearing the way for a major withdrawal of US forces by the end of Trump’s first term, but a spike in violence, with 1,500 civilian casualties in July alone, has underlined the tenuous nature of such negotiations.

Foreign policy issues rarely play a leading role in US presidential elections, but Trump has relentlessly portrayed himself as uniquely able to strike deals with foreign leaders and bring US troops home. And some foreign crises have a direct domestic result. The absence so far of the promised deal with China, the imposition of tariffs and the prospect of a worsening trade war will directly hit consumers and producers. “What is interesting is that in every one of these issues, Trump saw a domestic political benefit: getting tough on China, Iran, on Venezuela, with voters in Florida in mind, the spectacle of meeting Kim Jong-un,” said Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s speechwriter and foreign policy adviser. “But whatever short-term benefit there was has been more than eclipsed by the long-term mess he has created.”

N. Korea conducts new missile tests as Trump backs Kim on war games

North Korea conducted the latest in a series of missile launches Saturday to protest US-South Korean war games, just hours after US President Donald Trump expressed his own frustration with the exercises.

Defence officials in Seoul said what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at daybreak from near the northeastern city of Hamhung, flying 400 kilometres (250 miles) before splashing down in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan. It was the fifth round of launches in two weeks, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un labelling them a "solemn warning" over the joint military drills that began just days ago.

Saturday's tests came shortly after Trump said he agreed with Kim's opposition to the war games -– albeit for financial rather than military reasons. ... "He wasn't happy with the war games. I've never liked it either. I've never been a fan. And you know why? I don't like paying for it."

US, Taliban ‘Likely To Sign Peace Deal’ Next Week

A senior member of the Taliban, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwah, says the US and the Taliban negotiators will likely sign the much-awaited peace agreement after Eid al-Adha -- at the end of this week.

In a recorded video published on Youtube, the Taliban member says the talks between the US and the group will continue after Eid al-Adha which ends on August 13.

He said that the peace deal between the US and the Taliban will be signed in the presence of representatives of the UN the Islamic Organization and regional countries after the return of the US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to Doha after Eid (August 14).

“Discussions on other issues such as intra-Afghan negotiations will be made after that [the signing of the peace deal],” he said.

Bolsonaro praises accused torturer and symbol of Brazil's dictatorship as 'national hero'

US security adviser in Britain to discuss Iran, Huawei – and Brexit

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has arrived in London for talks at which he is expected to urge Britain to toughen its stance on Iran and Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei. As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the European Union on 31 October, many diplomats expect London to become increasingly reliant on the United States.

Bolton arrived on Sunday night and will hold talks on Monday and Tuesday. They will include a heavy focus on Brexit, reflecting the Trump White House’s attempts to solidify ties with Boris Johnson’s new government after Trump’s strained relationship with his predecessor Theresa May.

The hardliner is expected to urge British officials to align policy on Iran more closely with that of Washington, which has pressured Tehran with an increase in sanctions after the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Britain has so far backed the European Union in sticking with the nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but the seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last month put pressure on London to consider a tougher stance.

Hong Kong Grounds Flights as Mass Sit-in Shuts Down Airport After Weekend of Protests

“Formal Impeachment Proceedings” Have Begun

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler finally made it official: The House is engaged in “formal impeachment proceedings” against President Trump. A decision on whether to recommend articles of impeachment will be made by his committee “hopefully” by the end of this year, Nadler told CNN Thursday night, in the first public declaration that the process is underway.

“This is formal impeachment proceedings,” Nadler said. “And we will at the conclusion of this — hopefully by the end of the year — vote to vote articles of impeachment to the House floor. Or we won’t. That’s a decision that we’ll have to make. But that’s exactly the process we’re in right now.”

The statement marks a rhetorical escalation in the still hotly-contested issue among House Democrats: how aggressively to proceed on impeachment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still opposes going there, fearing it's a political dead end, bound for certain failure in the Republican-controlled Senate.

But as that debate roils on, a related battlefront is heating up: Democrats’ strategy for prying damaging information from Trump’s White House, in what they hope will result in a series of explosive televised hearings this fall featuring top-shelf members of Trump’s inner circle. And that may be their real prize — even if they never get around to impeachment.

Keiser Report: Healthcare

America Is Saying “Do Something” on Gun Control. Washington Isn’t in a Hurry.

President Trump and Mitch McConnell are actually making noises about considering background checks after last weekend’s two horrific mass shootings. But they don’t seem to be in any great rush: Neither Senate Majority Leader McConnell nor House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called their conferences back from summer recess for an emergency session, despite loud calls from Democrats to do so. ...


Trump tweeted early Monday that he would support background checks if coupled with immigration reform, but appeared to walk back those statements during his White House address, when he put the blame for rampant gun violence on mental illness and violent video games.

And McConnell has refused to hold a vote on a gun control bill House Democrats passed in February that would require background checks for gun sales, despite calls this week from Schumer, Pelosi, and a conference of over 200 mayors to reconvene the Senate in an emergency session to discuss gun control measures and white supremacy.

His comments on Thursday are the closest he’s come to publicly entertaining the idea.


Guatemala's president-elect Giammattei slams migration deal with US

Norway mosque attack suspect 'inspired by Christchurch and El Paso shootings'

The suspected gunman in an attack on a mosque in Norway on Saturday was inspired by recent white extremist attacks in New Zealand and the US, online posts suggest. Police in Norway have so far only said the attack in Baerum, a town 20km from Oslo, the capital, will be investigated as a possible act of terrorism.

In messages posted on the day of the attack, Philip Manshaus, a 21-year-old man who has been named by local media as the main suspect, described himself as “chosen” by “Saint [Brenton] Tarrant”, the gunman who killed 51 people at mosques in New Zealand in March.

“My time is up, I was chosen by Saint Tarrant after all … We can’t let this continue, you gotta bump the race war threat in real life … it’s been fun,” one post reads. In a meme also posted by Manshaus, three rightwing extremists suspected of being responsible for other attacks this year are depicted and praised as heroes of the white nationalist movement.

Tarrant is described as having “addressed the Muslim problem” while Patrick Crusius, who has been charged with the attack in El Paso, Texas, in which 22 people died, is praised for “fighting to reclaim his country”. A third attacker suspected of killing a woman during a Passover celebration at a synagogue in California in April is also praised, alongside antisemitic abuse.

The evidence of posts supporting the actions of the three suspects will fuel fears that a “cascade” of rightwing extremist attacks is gathering supporters around the world.

Is Trump a white supremacist? Chokwe Antar Lumumba says yes.

Police have killed 5,000 Americans since Ferguson protests

Friday marked five years since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot at least six times, including once through the top of the head, and left for four-and-a-half hours to die in the street by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson. Brown’s father, Michael Brown, Sr. used the grim anniversary to call for a reopening of the investigation into his son’s death. The killer cop has never been charged. “Justice has not been served,” Brown, Sr. said at a press conference Friday morning outside the St. Louis County Justice Services Center, not far from where Michael Brown was killed. “My son deserved to live a full life. But a coward with a badge… chose not to value his life. My son was murdered in cold blood, with no remorse and no medical treatment.”

Brown’s killing on the afternoon of August 9, 2014 sparked popular protests in the small working class suburb of St. Louis, which were met with a paramilitary police occupation and deployment of the National Guard by a Democratic governor. The scenes of riot police with body armor and military grade weapons, backed by armored vehicles with mounted machine guns and military helicopters, facing down peacefully protesting men, women and children shocked the whole country and the world. Protestors were shot by rubber bullets, bean bags and flash bang grenades. More than a dozen journalists were arrested as they attempted to cover the police crackdown. ...

Four months later a grand jury delivered its decision not to indict Wilson, reigniting protests that were again met by a police crackdown and the deployment of more than a thousand National Guard troops. This was followed by President Barack Obama’s Justice Department announcement in March 2015 that it would not bring federal civil rights charges against Wilson, completing the whitewash of Brown’s murder. ...

Despite popular protests and increased scrutiny in the aftermath of Brown’s killing, US police officers have continued to kill at a rate of more than 1,000 people every year, amounting to more than 5,000 since Brown was gunned down. According to data collected by Mapping Police Violence, police officers were charged in less than 2 percent of all 6,836 killings recorded between 2013 and 2018. In only 0.4 percent of cases (28) during this period was an officer charged, convicted and sentenced.

12-Year-Old Was Sitting on His Bed When Chicago Cop Shot Him

Twelve-year-old Amir Worship was fast asleep when a SWAT team allegedly raided his bedroom at 5 a.m. on May 26, conducting a search warrant in his south Chicago home. One of the officers then shot him in the leg, shattering his knee, when he was sitting on the edge of his bed complying with their orders, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County, Illinois.

Amir’s room was already cleared and he was attempting to follow directions when he was shot, according to the complaint. "Police shot 12-year-old Amir as he sat on the edge of his bed with his hands up," said his attorney, Al Hofeld Jr., in a news conference Thursday. Amir's older brothers, Eric, 13, and Robert, 18, woke up to guns pointed at them, too, the complaint alleges.

But the officers weren’t looking for the boys; they were trying to arrest their mother’s boyfriend, Mitchell Thurman, who had been charged with drug and gun possession. In June, Thurman’s case was dismissed.

Michigan Cop Being Investigated for KKK Memorabilia Shot and Killed a Black Man in 2009

A Michigan cop has been placed on administrative leave so city officials can investigate why he decorated his home with Confederate flags and a framed membership application for the Ku Klux Klan. ...

Muskegon City Manager Frank Peterson was alerted to Officer Charles Anderson’s disturbing memorabilia after an African-American man toured the white officer’s home, which is for sale, according to the statewide news site MLive. Rob Mathis wrote on Facebook that the five-bedroom home was littered with Confederate memorabilia. The KKK application was hanging in one of the bedrooms. It lacks a name and signature.

Anderson, who's been with the force for more than two decades, fatally shot a black man in 2009, according to MLive. The 48-year-old officer killed 23-year-old Julius Johnson after the man fled on foot after a traffic stop and then allegedly beat the officer in the head. Anderson had been called in as back-up apparently relating to the smell of marijuana, and said he shot Johnson because he feared for his life. The local prosecutor said Anderson was justified in using deadly force.

ICE raided 7 Mississippi poultry plants after workers fought for their rights

Your Amazon Alexa Might Have Been Made by Overworked Chinese Schoolchildren

Tens of millions of people use Amazon’s Alexa-enabled Echo speakers to play music, make calls, and turn off the lights. What they don’t know is how those speakers were built: by schoolchildren who are forced to work overtime and night shifts against their will, according to a new report from China Labor Watch.

The 72-page report details how Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that also makes Apple’s iPhones, drafts thousands of Chinese teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18 to work long hours without a break when it receives large orders of the popular Alexa-enabled Echo smart speakers.

Workers are typically restricted to 60 hours per week, but when a large order is placed, the factory lifts those restrictions and forces the schoolchildren to work overtime and night shifts, often without a single day off. The factory in Hengyang, the second-largest city in Hunan Province, draws from a group of local schools to bolster its labor force during busy periods. Researchers found that teachers in those schools effectively force students to work this punishing schedule.

A China Labor Watch investigation last year found similar labor rights violations, and Foxconn and Amazon both promised to fix the problem. But the group’s 2019 investigation found that Foxconn’s working conditions have actually deteriorated.



the horse race



Sanders Demands Drug and Insurance Industries Explain the Hundreds of Millions They Seem Willing to Spend to Defeat Medicare for All

Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is calling on the top lobbyists of the nation's private health insurance and pharmaceutical industries to explain to the American people why they are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this election cycle to attack his proposal for Medicare for All—a plan that would provide everyone in the country with healthcare coverage by improving and expanding the existing Medicare program.

In a letter sent Friday to Matt Eyles and Stephen Ubl, the respective heads of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Sanders asked them both to "please explain to the American people why you believe it is more important to spend such an enormous sum of money on advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions than it is to make sure that no one in the wealthiest country in the world dies or goes bankrupt because they cannot afford to purchase life-saving prescription drugs or go to a doctor."


Who’s Afraid of Tulsi Gabbard?

“It just shows,” says Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, “that launching a smear campaign is the only response to the truth.”

Gabbard, 38, burst into headlines after a July 31 Democratic Party presidential debate, when she went after California Senator Kamala Harris’s record as Attorney General of the State of California. The “smear campaign” refers to the bizarre avalanche of negative press that ensued, as reporters seemed to circle wagons around a Harris, a party favorite. The Gabbard-Harris exchange was brief but revealing, as a window into a schism in the Democratic Party. Harris was elected Attorney General of California in 2010. She frequently sought moderate or even conservative positions on issues like criminal sentencing, drug enforcement, and prison labor. These stances were standard among Democrats back when being “tough on crime” was considered an essential component of the “electability” argument. ...

Having wounded a presumptive frontrunner backed by nearly $25 million in campaign funds, Gabbard instantly became the subject of a slew of negative leaks, tweets, and press reports. Many of these continued the appalling recent Democratic Party tradition of denouncing anything it doesn’t like as treasonous aid to foreign enemies. ... The New York Times wrote Gabbard believes the United States has “wrought horror on the world,” and that “critics have called her actions un-American.” Politico denounced Gabbard’s “Star Wars bar scene-like following” and hissed that the Daily Stormer was a supporter (Gabbard has repeatedly condemned white nationalism and sworn off their support).  On The View, co-host Sunny Hostin called Gabbard a “Trojan Horse,” while Ana Navarro viciously insinuated Gabbard, an Iraq veteran, was part of a foreign column.

The campaign against Gabbard is part of another remarkable shift in the Democratic Party. Barack Obama’s star began to rise as a presidential candidate 12 years ago, in 2007, when asked in a debate if he’d be willing to meet with Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea. Obama said he would, that “it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.” He added: “The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of [the Bush] administration — is ridiculous.” He went on to cite, as Gabbard has done, the example of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who both met with Soviet leaders. It is true that Hillary Clinton pushed back against Obama’s position in that debate, calling it “irresponsible,” but the moment was a key in endearing Obama to liberal voters who were tired of Bush’s gunboat lunacy. The episode also helped define one of the more meaningful policy differences between Clinton and Obama. But the progressive position that meeting with dictators and/or adversaries is not only defensible but desirable no longer has any representation in major America media. ...

[Excerpts from a podcast which will be released later follow. - js]



the evening greens


Example of 'Unknown Unknowns,' Study Detailing 'Almost Instant Mortality of Corals' Suggests Crisis Worse Than Previously Understood

As the human-caused climate crisis drives up ocean temperatures at a rate that has scientists worried, a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology reveals that warming waters are an even bigger threat to coral reefs than experts previously realized. Past research has raised alarm about how ocean pollution and rising temperatures cause coral bleaching—which is when coral expels algae, its main food source, and turns white. Although more susceptible to disease and death, bleached coral can recover if temperatures fall, so some scientists have been hopeful that urgent climate action could revive impacted reefs.

However, the new study—conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales Sydney, the University of Newcastle, the University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—heightens concerns about the future of coral reefs in a warming world. ...

"Until now, we have described coral bleaching as an event where the symbiotic relationship between coral and its microbes breaks down and corals lose their main source of nutrition, and the coral can die if the symbiosis is not restored," co-author Tracy Ainsworth, an associate professor at Australia's University of New South Wales Sydney, explained in a statement. "But what we are now seeing is that severe marine heatwave events can have a far more severe impact than coral bleaching," Ainsworth continued. "The water temperatures are so warm that the coral animal doesn't bleach—in terms of a loss of its symbiosis—the animal dies and its underlying skeleton is all that remains."


"We find that the skeleton is immediately overgrown by rapid growth of algae and bacteria," said co-author Bill Leggat, an associate professor at the U.K.'s University of Newcastle. By CT scanning the coral skeleton, Leggat said, the team found that "this process is devastating not just for the animal tissue, but also for the skeleton that is left behind, which is rapidly eroded and weakened." ...

PBS News Hour reported that "without the option to recover, the world may start seeing corals die off faster than expected. And the death of corals would come with a steep cost for humans: flood protection that's worth tens of millions in the U.S. alone, plus an estimated value of almost $30 billion each year globally in tourism, fishing, and other benefits."

Trump EPA Moves to Accelerate Pipeline Approvals With Attack on Clean Water Act

Environmentalists on Friday denounced the Trump administration for once again attempting to boost fossil fuel industry profits at the expense of public health after EPA chief Andrew Wheeler proposed a rule to expedite approval of dirty pipeline projects. The rule, according to the Wall Street Journal, would significantly weaken states' authority to cite Clean Water Act regulations to delay or block pipeline projects.

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement Friday that the Trump administration's proposal "should be seen for what it is: an egregious handout to corporate fossil fuel polluters."

"The Clean Water Act is responsible for many of the most important improvements in public health and safety for generations. Any effort to strip its power is an affront to common sense and our overall wellbeing," said Hauter. "For an administration that claims to prioritize states' rights, this attempted power grab at the expense of state-based clean water oversight is the epitome of hypocrisy."

Tom Perez, DNC Accused of Trying to Stifle Climate Debate for 2020 Dems

Activists are raising the alarm that the Democratic Party may be about to kill efforts to schedule a debate focused on the climate crisis through a resolution being pushed by Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez that includes language seen as a potential excuse for not covering the topic. The Perez resolution, which was publicly revealed Friday by HuffPost reporter Alexander Kaufman, is entitled "Resolution Recommitting the Democratic Party to the Work of Combating Climate Change and Creating Jobs by Growing our Clean Energy Economy." The proposal lists nine points on climate, but it's the last one—a relatively innocuous few lines of praise for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates—that has green groups concerned.

From the resolution:

WHEREAS, Democratic candidates for President of the United States are demonstrating their commitment to tackling the issue of climate change, having already scheduled two televised forums on CNN and MSNBC to discuss the issue, and debating the issue during each of the DNC-sanctioned presidential primary debates; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, Democrats will address the serious threat of climate change through bold and inclusive solutions that grow the clean energy economy and expand America's middle class.

"Whereas Democratic candidates are proposing real solutions to the crisis; and whereas a forum is not the same as a debate, therefore be it resolved that Tom Perez needs to stop looking for excuses to not hold a climate debate," tweeted green group Sierra Club. "Simply put, the people demand and deserve to hear a real debate on the climate crisis, not yet another DC leader obstructing the conversation," the group added. "It's time we get a climate debate."

According to HuffPost's Kaufman, the resolution language is suspect to activists that already distrust the DNC:

That, say activists, appears to provide cover to the DNC to reject a resolution calling for an official debate on the climate crisis. The DNC is expected to consider proposals for a climate debate and a party-sanctioned forum later this month.

"Why is Tom Perez trying to kill the momentum for a climate debate?" progressive group Justice Democrats wondered on Twitter.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

While Poorest Scapegoated, Analysis of 25 World's Wealthiest Families a Reminder of Inequality's Economic Drain

Australian investigative journalist exposes Guardian/New York Times betrayal of Assange

North Korea Dislikes U.S. Plans To Occupy It

The NYT’s Pro-War Arguments Against War With Iran

How To Avoid Being Called A Russian Agent Online

There are reasons to be cheerful. These are the dying days of a rancid old order

Malaysia Indicts 17 of the “Untouchables” at Goldman Sachs

“She Should Be Shot”: An Ohio Man Was Just Charged With Threatening AOC

How white supremacy went mainstream in the US: 8chan, Trump, voter suppression

Border Patrol Arrest Reports Are Full of Lies That Can Sabotage Asylum Claims

Criminalizing Compassion: The Unraveling of the Conspiracy Case Against No More Deaths Volunteer Scott Warren

‘Hungry kids collapse as looters take millions’: life in today’s Zimbabwe


A Little Night Music

Johnny Jenkins - It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues

Johnny Jenkins - I Don't Want No Woman

Johnny Jenkins - Scratch My Back

Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers - Love Twist

Otis Redding & The Pinetoppers - Fat Girl

Johnny Jenkins - Dimples

Johnny Jenkins - Big Bad Wolf

Johnny Jenkins & Duane Allman - Down Along The Cove

Johnny Jenkins - Voodoo In You

Johnny Jenkins - The Truth Is Gonna Stand



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hecate's picture

Joe.

The Farage Nazi, chief Depends-provider to the bedwetting Brexiteers, is all a-drizzle that the royal Harry has been despoiled by a Negress. Now "the prince of wokeness,” once “this young, brave, boisterous, all-male, getting into trouble, turning up at stag parties inappropriately dressed, drinking too much and causing all sorts of mayhem, and then a brave British officer who did his bit in Afghanistan. He was the most popular royal of a younger generation that we’ve seen for 100 years. And then he met Meghan Markle, and it’s fallen off a cliff. We’ve been told in the last week that Meghan and Harry will only have two children, that we’re all completely ignoring the real problem the Earth faces, and that is the fact the population of the globe is exploding but no one dares talk about it, no one dares deal with it. But whether Prince Harry has two kids is irrelevant, given there are now 2.6 billion Chinese and Indians on this Earth.” The yellow peril! The brown hordes! The horror! The horror!

The Klansman plan to strangle the intertubes is no surprise to anyone who's paid even two neurons worth of attention to the chunder flying from his lips and his twitlering finger-tips ever since he jiggled his blubber down the escalator to sieg some heils about Mexican rapists. Every day, in every way, he makes it perfectly clear that the tubes should feature only MAGAroids goosestepping around in Klansman armbands, worshipping at all times his bigly.

Wanted to acknowledge Bob Wilber, who recently passed; great quote from the fellow:

“I said, ‘Well, Dad, I just want to hang around and listen to all these great musicians, maybe meet them, maybe get a chance to sit in and play with them.' He says, ‘Son, you want to spend the rest of your life blowing your lungs out in smoky dives?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I want to do.’"

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6WuvBeDWKM]

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Bollox Ref's picture

@hecate

until Farage and his horde of swivel-eyed loons decided to start to disparage the Royal Family for not being regressive or 'brexity' enough.

The Royal Family? WTF?.......

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

hecate's picture

@Bollox Ref
is particularly a-foam about Harry because once, in the imbecility of youth, Harry donned for a costume party a Nazi uniform, and a Nazi is what Farage actually is; hell, even Sky News is saying Farage "clearly likes Prince Harry wearing Nazi uniforms." But now Farage is betrayed; Harry has been possessed by a Negress; they both need to go in the ovens.

Zoe Williams has a fun piece: "Nigel Farage Attacking Prince Harry Is Like The Angry Man Ranting On A Bus":

Harry was one of them when, as a 20 year-old, he dressed up as a Nazi, and now that he’s married some woman, and started talking about science, and evidence, and responsibility, he’s one of the other. A libtard; a snowflake; a despicable.

I knew in my bones that one of these clowns would go after the royal family next. I wrote a week ago on how peculiar it feels to hold the Windsors as liberal allies, to have to defend them from splenetic political attack. It made no rational sense—why would ethno-nationalists turn against their own royal family?—but I understood it with my reptile brain.

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joe shikspack's picture

@hecate

great to see you. i hope that you are faring well.

if i understand british politics correctly (which i may not) i think that i have read that the queen has the (at least theoretical) power to sack boris johnson and force the creation of a new government.

perhaps that is what has farage doing a bit of preemptive royal-bashing.

bob wilber had a great life plan!

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@joe shikspack
She can only sack him if does not have the confidence of Parliament, in which case the sacking is pro forma. He's already been sacked, she's just making it official.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

joe shikspack's picture

@lotlizard

thanks for the articles. it is not surprising that the indian right-wingers suppress the art and culture of kashmiris. it seems a traditional move by authoritarians.

the identity politics article is behind a paywall.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Trumps internet doctrine could be pretty hilarious, especially if the right lawyer handles it. We need to figure out a way to ensure that it happens in the 9th circuit.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

heh. yep, it strikes me that should trump's proposed edict be enforced, he would have the entirety of the silicon valley 1% club, all of the 1st amendment orgs and just about everyone who uses the internet fulminating against him. it won't be pretty.

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Azazello's picture

Here's some more stuff you might find interesting.
On economics and neoliberalism: Bretton Woods Institutions: Enforcers, Not Saviours?
Scott Ritter, writing in The American Conservative: Tulsi Gabbard’s Road to Damascus
And this:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-PILH78Ys width:500 height:300]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

joe shikspack's picture

@Azazello

thanks for the links. heh, the imf and world bank have known for years that their neoliberal scams don't work and that they have no success stories to tell. rather, much of the developing world (except for the dictators that enrich themselves from the loans) despises them and the misery that they spread.

of course, that doesn't mean that they have made any changes in their programs.

aaron mate nails it again. good for him for calling out the useless democrats.

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ggersh's picture

Chicago is a war zone and the cops are the military

this weekend 47 people wounded yet nothing done by
are bestest first responders ever

Got rid of Rahm the Jew big deal, now we got Lori she's gay,
all come with labels that are meant to make everything cool.

Sorry, I'm not calling out LGBTQ and Jewish people but when
labels become more important than the character of such
aforementioned we all lose.

Sorry for the rant, my hometown, my country have become grade
A shitholes.

EDIT: added the video, they've given us clowns

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODqj9Mq39FM&list=RDODqj9Mq39FM&start_rad...

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

sometimes when you let your mind drift, it becomes hard to believe that violent hellholes like areas of chicago and many of our other major cities are not that way by design.

can it really be true that our political class is so inept that in the course of the last, say, 50 years they are not able to understand and reverse the causes of violence?

while i hesitate to ascribe any level of intellect to america's native class of politician, i don't believe that they are that stupid.

the only reasonable conclusion is that they like things this way and that is why they (too) cleverly (by half) design to appear to be addressing the problem while actively reproducing and perpetuating it.

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lotlizard's picture

@ggersh  
https://heyjackass.com/

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ggersh's picture

@lotlizard the stat's are mind blowing, my home Chicago
is so friggin corrupt, it's beyond words

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Steven D's picture

I read the Intercept story about the prosecution by the DOJ of Scott Warren for providing humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the desert in Ajo, Arizona.

How unbelievably cruel and vicious a policy our government is carrying out, funneling migrants to cross at the one place they are most likely to die, all done in our name as US citizens. The criminals are the Border Patrol, ICE and the US government as a whole, not the people trying to save their lives. What a horrible country we have become.

Here's the link for anyone who missed it:

https://theintercept.com/2019/08/10/scott-warren-trial/

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

@Steven D and the defense attorneys (pro bono) just kicked ass, took names, very inspiring, very heartening.
It isn't every day that you can put the defendant on the stand, but this, this trial, was just a dream come true.
I am tempted to send them some money, just because.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@Steven D

great to see you! i hope all is going well.

yep, i was glad to see a court reject the government's plan of enforced cruelty.

someday, i hope that there will be true accountability for the savages that are abusing their power.

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ludwig ii's picture

Mauricio Macri, beloved by the IMF, The Economist, The Washington Post, and neoliberals everywhere, was trounced in a humiliating 48-32 loss to Alberto Fernandez and his running mate, former left-wing President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Sunday's primary. The primary acts as a first-round poll and winnows the field by excluding candidates who do not receive at least 1.5% from the October ballot. BBC: Argentine leader Mauricio Macri trounced in primary vote

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joe shikspack's picture

@ludwig ii

that is good news. sadly, though, even if he fails to win a second term, macri has done the job that the washington consensus institutions employed him for, which was to load up argentina with additional debt to further make them beholden and subject to the leverage of neoliberal insitutions.

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travelerxxx's picture

Despite popular protests and increased scrutiny in the aftermath of Brown’s killing, US police officers have continued to kill at a rate of more than 1,000 people every year, amounting to more than 5,000 since Brown was gunned down. According to data collected by Mapping Police Violence, police officers were charged in less than 2 percent of all 6,836 killings recorded between 2013 and 2018. In only 0.4 percent of cases (28) during this period was an officer charged, convicted and sentenced.

If anyone else in the world had killed this many Americans in such a short period of time, we would probably be at war with them. (Well, except for maybe the Israelis or the Saudis...) Were it Russia, nukes would be airborne.

Instead, we hold parades for them, thank them for their service, and give them free doughnuts. They need accountability, and they've needed it for decades. Sadly, I don't see it coming anytime soon.

Police seem to be able to kill with impunity, then stroll through the court system as though they own it. Perhaps they do own it. Our mainstream newspapers, radio, and television mention incidents once - if at all - and then it's crickets. Crickets, unless citizens attempt to rise up and protest. Then the media is all on it, as they hide behind the SWAT team armoured ex-military vehicles and machine-gun weilding peace officers.

***

On a happier note, nice to hear Otis this evening.

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@travelerxxx for "are".
I am really getting my cop diss revved up.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@travelerxxx

when you look at the demographics of who the police murder, it becomes clearer as to why they can stroll in and out of court like they own it. they don't seem to be murdering rich white people in numbers, do they?

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snoopydawg's picture

Be more amazed

Twitter says that she went up 8 feet.... incredible.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

that is just awe inspiring.

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Azazello's picture

@snoopydawg
Simone Biles is the GOAT. Obviously, this is Russian propaganda.
Everyone knows that the real GOAT is Efren Reyes. He has retired after a long career. Here are some highlights from his farewell tour last year. Just showin' off, you might say.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbaTU4kQovo&t=241s width:600 height:360]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello even western Canada in the early 70's with my friend Jerry Kapchinsky Central Canadian and British Columbia Snooker champion. Years later we would go from Vancouver BC to Colorado where I knew a lot of pool halls and good gambling bars in Boulder and Denver then down to my home State, Texas where we played in Fort Worth, Dallas , Houston, Big Springs (west Tx) up to Shreveport and around Louisiana.
So I know a lot of pool players, including Earl Strickland who has played, and won matches against Efren but along with other legends of the game, Steve Mizerak (Famous Lite Beer trick shot commercial), Allan Hopkins, Cornbread Red (Billy Burge of Detroit), Pretty Boy Floyd (Jimmy Mataya) Buddy Hall (who beat Efren out of 10k another time )Nick Varner, Mike Sigel, Bill Incardona and many other notable pool players that, when asked,to this day all point to Efren as the GOAT.

Efren was not only known in the Philippines but SE Asia before he came to the US and when he entered a tournament in Houston that had the cream of the crop of pool players across the Country at the Le Cue pool room where he entered as Cesar Morales and beat everyone. Then after winning someone asked him to autograph the poster for the tournament and without thinking he signed 'Efren Reyes'.
Look up "The Color of Money", and I don't mean the Tom Cruise, Paul Newman (as 'Fast Eddie later in life (teaching the young phenom how to hustle) pool movie, no this was an early 1990's recorded one on one match Earl Strickland vs Efren Reyes for $100k winner take all race to first one to win 120 games over three days. Simply great pool and Efren won on day three 120 to 117, so yes Earl Strickland is also a legend in pool.
Btw Efren is still playing and few months ago he was in the high dollar one-pocket tournament (my favorite game) by New Orleans at Buffalo Billiards,didn't win but placed in the money but the only reason he came was because the owner of the room payed all his expenses, air fare, entry fee, hotel etc. because he wanted to see Efren at least one more time.
He is also the most humble player you'll ever know but what you won't know is that he is generous to everyone but when the hurricane destroyed most of his home area in the Philippines Efren paid for the rebuilding of many homes. Never mentioned to the general public.
I'll stop there because after a lifetime of pool I might ramble on too long, but if you want to read something great about the pool players read the late, Freddy 'the beard' Bentivegna's 'The Encyclopedia of Pool Hustlers' with anecdotes about legendary pool hustlers and insights to that world.

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Azazello's picture

@aliasalias
but I could play pretty good before my eyes went south. I haven't read Bentivegna's book but I have several others in that genre. I'll post another vid here because it seems like you know enough to appreciate it.
One-pocket is, of course, the true test of skill at pool. Tony Chohan has been beating everybody the last few years. Check this out.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94TFGdJEMy0 width:600 height:360]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello @Azazello you have watched the one on one matches in one pocket against Dennis Orcullo for $40k each have won one and they have a 'rubber match' coming up and it will be live streamed on pay-per-view by Poolactiontv.com . Well worth the money to watch.

They will be playing at Buffalo Billiards and fwiw in the last tournament there Alex Pagulayan (another of my favorite players, and people) won and Corey Deuel came in second.

What a pool room, open 24/7 and it is a key stop for anyone 'on the road',while one top player Danny 'the shredder' Smith has moved to the area to be part of the gambling action full time anyone that goes there will find action but better now what they're doing because the water is pretty deep there, a lot of talent.

I don't know how old you are so I don't know who you know of but it was the late Ronnie Allen that changed the way people play one-pocket, Scott Frost learned from him and his videos on 'Power One-Pocket' are a testimony to the style of play that Tony Chohan exhibits.
When I was a teenager the game was considered an 'old man's game', bunting balls around, make a ball or two if possible then play safe then along came Ronnie Allen who changed it all and Efren Reyes brought his genius level creativity to the game to which Chohan is a great example as well.

I also need to make a correction it was at 'Red's' pool room in Houston, not 'Le Cue' and in case anyone else that read this all that don't know better, it wasn't so much about the tournament but about getting top players/gamblers and 'stake horses' together in one place to match up and bet high.

The famous 'Z shot' against Earl Strickland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6G_RnPh1yw

The 1990 match in Hong Kong for a $100k...https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=efren+reyes+vs+earl+strickl...

PS the reason I'm answering so late to your post is that I came in late last night from the pool room ,then wanted to add more this morning because I saw your post and just had to chime in, thanks.

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@Azazello
And I've seen clips of Wayne Gretzky doing things that were almost unimaginable, until he did them.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

snoopydawg's picture

I can't embed this tweet, but you have to watch it. Maybe someone else can try? It's very funny

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

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snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

I sure needed that laugh after today's news. Boy is she talented. Fortunately for me our high bar broke and it was only 6 inches off the ground.. I just didn't have the body for gymnastics.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

lotlizard's picture

Yet somehow Epstein was able to have his name entirely removed from the case, while his partner Steven Hoffenberg got an 18-year prison sentence.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jeffrey-epstein-death-...

Also:
What Raúl Ilargi Meijer wrote back in January 2018, marking 10 years of his news aggregator site The Automatic Earth.
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/01/10-years-automatic-earth/

What has changed, and increased, a lot over the past decade is the media. They have moved, more than before, into a kind of la la land where narratives are invented and presented with the express intention of keeping people feeling good about themselves in the face of all the distortion and disasters they face.

The big move in energy is not so much peak oil, but a meme of moving away from oil. ‘Renewable energy’ is all the fad, and it works, because it holds the promise that we can maintain our levels of energy consumption, and our lifestyles in general, pretty much up to some undefined moment in the future. For all you know, a seamless transition.

It’s a nonsense narrative, which originates not just in wishful thinking, but much more than that in widespread ignorance about what energy actually is and does, and what qualities oil and gas bring to the table that no other energy source can.

We must have written a hundred articles about such themes as energy return on energy invested (EROEI), and that the EROEI on renewables doesn’t allow for our present complex societies to continue as they are. Renewables are not useless by any means, but switching to them from oil will mean a huge simplification from our present lives. More than anything, probably, we have to ask if that would be such a bad thing.

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